Brit Hume

Brit Hume
Born	Alexander Britton Hume June 22, 1943 (1943-06-22) Washington, D.C., United States
Education	B.A., University of Virginia
Occupation	Television journalist
Notable credit(s)	ABC News correspondent (1976–1988) ABC News Chief White House Correspondent (1989–1996) Special Report with Brit Hume anchor (1998–2008) Fox News Senior Political Analyst (2008–present)
Religion	Episcopalian
Spouse	Clare Jacobs Stoner (divorced) Kim Schiller Hume
Children	Louis, Virginia, Alexander, Jr. "Sandy" (deceased)

Brit Hume (born June 22, 1943) is an American television journalist and political commentator. For twenty years he was a correspondent for the American Broadcasting Company, including Chief White House Correspondent. He then spent ten years as the Washington, D.C. managing editor of the Fox News Channel and the anchor of Special Report with Brit Hume. Since 2008, he has been the senior political analyst for Fox News and a regular public affairs panelist on Fox News Sunday.

Early life

Brit Hume was born Alexander Britton Hume in Washington, D.C., the son of Virginia Powell (née Minnigerode) Hume and George Graham Hume. He attended St. Albans School at the same time as Al Gore and graduated from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1965.

Career

Hume first worked for The Hartford Times, and later for United Press International and the Baltimore Evening Sun. He then worked for syndicated columnist Jack Anderson from 1970 to 1972, and later for Richard Pollak, founding editor of [MORE] (a monthly media review published in the 1970s), as a Washington Editor during the mid-1970s.

Hume reported a story for Anderson's "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column that after ITT Corporation had contributed $400,000 to the 1972 Republican National Convention the Nixon Department of Justice had settled the antitrust case against ITT. Anderson published a series of classified documents indicating the Nixon administration, contrary to its public pronouncements, had tilted in favor of Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. After those revelations, Anderson and his staff, including Hume and his family were briefly under surveillance by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1972. The agents code-named Hume "eggnog" and observed his family going about their daily business. These documents came to light during the Ford administration during Congressional hearings, and more recently as the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and the so-called 'Family Jewels' revelations.

Hume started working for ABC News in 1973 as a consultant and in 1976 was offered a job as a correspondent, covering the House for 11 years. He was assigned to cover Walter Mondale's presidential campaign in 1984 and Vice President George H.W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign. In 1989, he became ABC's chief White House correspondent, covering the administrations of Bush and Bill Clinton and working closely with Peter Jennings and Charlie Gibson.

In January 1997, he left ABC for Fox News, where his wife had recently become the chief of the network's Washington bureau. At his last news conference as ABC's chief White House correspondent, President Clinton told him, "I think all of us think you have done an extraordinary, professional job under Republican and Democratic administrations alike." Hume became Fox News's Washington managing editor and was in discussions about starting a Washington-based news show in the 6 p.m. timeslot. The Lewinsky scandal broke in January 1998, and Hume's wife told him the story was so hot that he should start the show immediately; Special Report with Brit Hume was launched that evening.

On December 16, 2008, Hume appeared as a guest on The O'Reilly Factor and announced his retirement from the anchor position. When asked how he would spend his time in retirement, Hume stated "Three Gs: God, granddaughters and golf."

On December 23, 2008, he hosted his final episode as anchor of Special Report, announcing that Bret Baier, then the chief White House correspondent for Fox News, would be his replacement. Hume also announced that he would remain with Fox News as a senior political analyst and regular panelist on Fox News Sunday.

Remarks on Tiger Woods

On January 3, 2010, as a guest commentator on Fox News Sunday Hume advised Tiger Woods to convert to Christianity. Hume's comments came in the wake of the revelation of Woods' habitual adultery and the resulting deterioration of his relationship with his family. Hume stated on the show that:

Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person I think is a very open question, and it's a tragic situation for him. I think he's lost his family, it's not clear to me if he'll be able to have a relationship with his children, but the Tiger Woods that emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal – the extent to which he can recover – seems to me to depend on his faith. He's said to be a Buddhist; I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, 'Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.'

Hume reiterated his remarks the following day on The O'Reilly Factor with Bill O'Reilly. Hume insisted to O'Reilly that he never meant to insult Buddhism, and stated that:

I was really meaning to say in those comments yesterday more about Christianity than I was about anything else. I mentioned the Buddhism only because his mother is a Buddhist and he has apparently said that he is a Buddhist. I’m not sure how seriously he practices that.

This explanation also drew criticism from his original critics as having been trying to defend his previous actions. Hume gave reason for his strong feelings on Christianity in an interview where he explained how he committed his life to Jesus Christ "in a way that was very meaningful" to him in the aftermath of his son's death by suicide in 1998.

Political beliefs

Regarding his political beliefs, in 2006 Hume said, "Sure, I'm a conservative, no doubt about it. But I would ask people to look at the work." In accepting the William F. Buckley, Jr. Award for Media Excellence from the conservative Media Research Center, he expressed his gratitude for

the tremendous amount of material that the Media Research Center provided me for so many years when I was anchoring Special Report. I don't know what we would have done without them. It was a daily, sort of a buffet of material to work from, and we – we – we certainly made tremendous use of it.

Personal life and religious views

Previously married to and divorced from Clare Jacobs Stoner, Hume is married to Kim Schiller Hume, Fox News vice president and former Washington bureau chief.

His son Washington journalist Sandy Hume was a reporter for The Hill and broke the story of the aborted 1997 coup against Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. In February 1998, Sandy Hume committed suicide. The National Press Club honors his memory with its annual Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism. Over a decade later, upon his 2008 departure from Special Report, Hume commented on part of the impact of his son's death:

"I want to pursue my faith more ardently than I have done. I'm not claiming it's impossible to do when you work in this business. I was kind of a nominal Christian for the longest time. When my son died, I came to Christ in a way that was very meaningful to me. If a person is a Christian and tries to face up to the implications of what you say you believe, it's a pretty big thing. If you do it part time, you're not really living it."

Awards

Hume is the recipient of several awards including:

• Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalist (2003)
• Emmy Award for coverage of the Gulf War (1991)
• American Journalism Review "Best in the Business" award (twice) for White House coverage

Books

• Hume, Brit (1971). Death and the Mines – Rebellion and Murder in the United Mine Workers. New York: Grossman. ISBN 067026105X. http://lccn.loc.gov/75106294. Retrieved 2008-12-31. 
• Hume, Brit (1974). Inside Story (1st ed.). Garden City, New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0385065264. http://lccn.loc.gov/73083640. Retrieved 2008-12-31.  (a memoir of his days working with Jack Anderson)

References

Specific references:

General references:

• [MORE], January 1974.
• The Nation, January 10, 1972.
• Newsweek, January 3, 1972.
• The New York Review of Books, December 2, 1971.
• The New York Times Book Review, August 11, 1974.
• Saturday Review, April 1, 1972.
• The Washington Post Book World, September 8, 1974.
• http://www.hulu.com/watch/118833/the-daily show-with-jon-stewart-tue-jan-5-2010
• The Social Register 1977 (National Edition)

External links

• Biography from Fox News

Media offices
Preceded by Sam Donaldson	ABC News Chief White House Correspondent 1989–1996	Succeeded by John Donvan